Editor's Note: SeMiBluegrass welcomes submissions from all our readers. Here's an excellent article by Hugh Fader on the History of Bluegrass in Detroit. Good Job Hugh!
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| CKLW Press Photo: Sonny & Bobby Osborne, Jimmy Martin |
When people think of Detroit music they usually think Motown
or the early garage rock rumblings of The MC5 and The Stooges. Or possibly as
the home of Jack White and location of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
What's not well known is that for a brief period during the 1950s, Detroit was
also a hotbed of bluegrass activity. This is documented by Neil Rosenberg in Bluegrass:
A History – a great book with loads of facts about bluegrass music. (And
you know this is a serious book because there's a colon in the title.)
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| Sonny Osborne on WJR |
The immigrants from Appalachia that poured into the city to
work in the auto factories in early to mid-20th century brought
their musical tastes with them. And this provided a ready-made audience for the
music that was soon to be called bluegrass. Most notably, former Bluegrass Boy
Jimmy Martin teamed up with The Osborne Brothers for The Lazy Ranch Barn Dance
on WJR radio and CKLW television. Later, Jimmy and
the Osbornes split. While still in Detroit, Jimmy formed his band The Sunny
Mountain Boys.
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| Wayside Records Ad in Billboard Magazine |
There was even a bluegrass record company headquartered in
Detroit: brothers Wade and Wiley Birchfield's Wayside Records. The Birchfields
were songwriters and players themselves and active on the Detroit bluegrass
scene. In fact, Wade wrote Jimmy Martin's first single “Hit Parade of Love.” In
his book Rosenberg shows a small ad for Wayside Records that appeared in a 1957
issue of Billboard. There are two things I find interesting about this.
First, the ad is subtitled “Music Blue Grass Style.” This is one of the first
documented commercial uses of the term bluegrass. Second, the ad gives the
address of the record company (the Birchfield's house) as 1298 St. Jean Avenue,
Detroit 14, Mich. Sadly, Google Street View shows that this is now a vacant
lot off of Jefferson Avenue
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| Wayside Records Logo? |
It's really great that we have a growing family of bluegrass
musicians here in the Detroit area. And hats off to John Bayerl for
SemiBluegrass.com and his other tireless promotional work. As a born and raised
Detroiter, I love that there are venues inside and outside of the city limits
to hear this great music.
References:
Rosenberg, Neil V. (1993), Bluegrass:
A History. University of Illinois Press.
Billboard Magazine, April 16, 1955 article discussing
Osborne/Martin on Detroit
radio and TV
Note: this is a link to the record company's google map
Link on Banjo Hangout to Sonny Osborne identifying photo
from CKLW
Link to site where I found Wayside Records logo. Not
positive it's the same Wayside.
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